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It could save the rainforests of Borneo, slow climate change and the international community backs it. But a plan to pay tropical countries not to chop down trees risks being discredited by opportunists even before it starts.

A forest carbon market is emerging in anticipation of a UN climate deal in December in Copenhagen, expected to allow rich countries to pay to protect rainforests as a cheap alternative to cutting their own greenhouse gases.

There are two ways to view Australia’s quarterly rise in gross domestic product, revealed to a largely incredulous world on Wednesday. The glass-half-empty reading is that Australia, far from being different from the rest of the globe, is merely lagging it.